Several things to think about before taking on a job that requires lots and lots of travel.
1. If you are single, take the job.
Take everything I say here and just file it away under "Hmm, that was interesting". Go ahead and take the job. Traveling for work will definitely broaden your horizons and open up multiple doors for your career and life.
2. That said, get ready to be tired, bored, and worn out.
Yes, you will get the chance to visit cities that you have always wanted to see. Just keep in mind that you'll probably only see them from the window of your hotel room or on-site where you will be working. When you are traveling there is never enough time to get the job done before you have to leave. You will always work as many hours as you can before you just can't take it anymore because you will have no other choice. At this point you'll either head to your hotel bar or your hotel room.
3. Speaking of bars, prepare to discover that you have an alcohol problem.
Unless you've already made a life commitment to stay sober, you're going to spend a lot of time all by yourself at bars waiting for something. You may be waiting for a flight, waiting for a flight, waiting for a flight (am I getting redundant?), or waiting to go to bed after you finish working. You will literally have no energy to actually go out and do anything after work, but you'll probably not want to sit in your hotel room staring at the wall. This leaves a couple options. First off, your hotel room will be boring and lonely. You will want to spend a little time in it as possible. Trust me.
That said, you'll probably want to see if your gym membership covers any local joints. The answer will most likely be no. Hey wait! There's a bar at the hotel! Maybe you'll meet someone there. Maybe the bartender will be friendly. Maybe anything will happen. What WILL happen is you will sit all by yourself right next to a couple of other sad and lonely guys in your exact same situation. It's an incredibly depressing experience. Get used to this. No, you won't meet a hot girl sitting by herself. Hot girls without nefarious intentions do not sit by themselves at lonely hotel bars. If they do, I've found that they don't like to be bothered very much. This may just be me; you might be a stud that no woman can resist.
4. Your company will not understand the concept of "Weather Delayed Flights".
You really would think that most companies would factor in the danger of weather delays into projects. Joke is on you buddy because they do not. In my world I was working on high-profile, time-sensitive IT projects. If I ended up stuck in, say, Chicago(!!!) after spending 24 hours in airports and already completely exhausted and sleeping on the floor, here is what would transpire about 80 percent of the time. I would most likely receive a phone call demanding why I informed my manager or PM that I would not be in by xx time on xx date. I would reiterate, "I've been stuck in airport hell for a while now and due to weather delays I won't be able to leave Chicago on any flight until tomorrow". I want to tell you that under no circumstances will your company understand this. This will be your fault. You may be told to get a car and drive it to whatever airport that you can find. Prepare for this and plan for it.
Do not under any circumstances choose to go through Chicago unless you have time to party if you have a valid second choice. In the two years that I traveled weekly, these were the most reliable airports. Talk with your manager or PM and let them know that the risk-savings will vastly outweigh the cost if your project is time-sensitive. If not, well, I'm sorry.
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
- Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
- George Bush Intercontinental Airport (Houstin)
- Salt Lake City International Airport
5. You are on-site, thus all failures, delays, and mishaps will be squared directly on your shoulders.
Not your manager's shoulders, not your project manager's shoulders; your shoulders. If you are the person on-site no matter what your role is, you are responsible for anything that happens. That said, you better cover your bases in every way you can. If you see a problem, call it out in an email and document it in a folder. Even if it's not your fault, it will be your fault. Out of anyone in the company, you are the one with the most incentive to catch any potential surprises and bring them up. Project managers have to weigh these things when they make decisions so they may ignore you. Just understand that if it happens, management will look first at you; not the project manager. Your PM may even blame things on you despite your warning; especially if it's a technical issue and nobody but you and a handful of other people really understand it. Just let it roll off, soldier on, and keep going.
6. Watch out for predators.
Being alone on the road is dangerous, especially if your in a strange city for more than a week. There are predators out there and they will target you. I've been robbed twice. I've drank with a bunch of fun-loving people I met at the bar only to find they stole everything I had on me and left me to wake up in a parking-lot the next morning at 3 AM with a huge lump on my skull (bonus to me for still showing up to work on time). I've had women at bars try to scam me. Avoid dive-bars completely. Never go to those. Trust me, those are full of criminal types who view you as a big fat juicy target. You probably will look and talk like some educated yokel who thinks he's better than them. Some of these people would normally never do a crime in their life, but nobody knows you and you'll be gone forever so they may just take the chance. You'd be surprised (or not) at what people will do when they don't think there will be any repercussions for it.
Side note; I also had an online-gaming character hacked by a guy who saw me playing it at the bar and wanted to see what it looked like. Guy looked pretty non-geeky at the time but I guess he was smart enough to look at my fingers and guess the password and then sell my in-game items for real-life money. Takes all kinds I guess!
7. Expense accounts are awesome, but most companies will expect you pay for everything up-front.
This was a complete surprise for me when I started my job. I had literally graduated college the same day I drove to Boston for my travel job. I spent my last dime on gas and the first payment for my apartment (with a little help from family). So not only did I have to wait more than five weeks to get my first paycheck, I had to wait more than two months to get my first expense reimbursement! This is normal fellas! That said, write down when you tip a cabby, when you tip a waiter, and pretty much when you pay cash for anything. Get a receipt for everything and put it in some sort of bag to keep in your pocket. Take a picture of those receipts every single day with your camera phone. You are going to save so much money doing this it's ridiculous.
8. As soon as you prove yourself, ask for more money. A lot more money. Demand it.
Finding the right person for a job is hard. Even more hard is finding the right person for a job who is willing live in sad little hotel rooms and be away from friends and family most of their life working for you. If you actually prove yourself and excel at a job doing this, you better ask for more money. Don't ask for a raise, ask for twice as much as they are paying you. Unless they're paying you $300,000 or you work for commission; you're not making enough. Ask for a major incentive for delivering a project on time and on budget, because trust me, you won't get credit for doing it no matter how hard you work at it. That will go to your management or your project manager. You WILL get credit for anything that goes wrong so you'd better be getting paid enough for doing this.
I've obviously written enough here. Until next time, keep on rambling.
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